


Meds

by SophiaCatherine



Series: At Home with the Legends [4]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Disabled Character, Gen, Hemophilia, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Neurodivergent Headcanons, Trans Character, medical references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 19:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14315949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaCatherine/pseuds/SophiaCatherine
Summary: Five times the Legends crew were happy to get Gideon’s help with meds, and one time Mick Rory wasn’t.





	Meds

**Author's Note:**

> For my 'DCTV Neurodivergent Headcanons' prompt request month.
> 
> Prompt from @stungunmilly2 on tumblr, who asked for Gideon reminding the crew to take their meds and a few related things. (I credit pretty much everything in this story to @stungunmilly2, whose prompts are perfection. This is full of their headcanons - I added a couple of my own. I hope I’ve done justice to the HCs!)
> 
> See extra content warnings at end.

**1\. Jax**

He has to admit, the AI has  _timing_. Jax is under the engines when she brings the subject up.

“Mr Jackson, may I ask you about something?”

He slides out. “Sure, Gideon.” He gets up and wipes his hands off.

“As I have mentioned before, I am concerned, Mr Jackson.” She pauses. “I do not want to insinuate that I am watching you. However, I am responsible for your medical care.”

Leaning against the engine cylinder, he rolls his eyes and picks up the manual.

“Mr Jackson,” she presses. “You have missed a week of doses.”

Jax stares at the manual in his hand. “You don’t give up, do you, Gideon?”

“No,” she says.

He sags against the cylinder. “I don’t like the side effects,” he mutters.

“There may be various things I can do for those,” she replies.

Jax looks up. “Really?” He sounds more hopeful than he meant to.

“Certainly. I have effective remedies for nausea, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, sexual dysfunction -”

He laughs and holds up a hand to stop her. “Okay, okay, I’m getting that you can help. Geez, Gideon.”

“Additionally,” she continues, “anxiety treatment has come a long between your time and mine, Mr Jackson. Would you consider coming to the med bay and allowing me to talk you through some alternative options?”

He thinks for a minute, chewing his lip and raising his eyebrows. “Well,” he shrugs. “If you can’t make your own neurotransmitters -”

“-then store-bought are just fine,” she finishes, deadpan.

He laughs, waving a hand at her. “Fine, I get it. I’ll come talk to you. Later, though, okay? I gotta fix this mess or the next mission will mainly involve a lot of sitting around in the time stream with Sara yelling.”

“That is perfectly acceptable, Mr Jackson.”

He nods, dropping himself to the floor and sliding back under an engine cylinder.

Then he slides out again. “Gideon…” he says.

“Yes, Mr Jackson?”

He smiles. “Thanks.”

“You are very welcome, Mr Jackson.”

* * *

**2\. Sara**  

Sara wanders into the med bay at 7am, before anyone else is up.

“Good morning, Captain Lance.”

“Morning, Gideon.” She hovers at one of the medbay chairs, biting a nail.

“Is everything all right, Captain Lance?”

She stops fidgeting and looks in the vague direction that she uses when she’s imagining an embodied Gideon to talk to. It makes it easier. “Gideon, I haven’t had my levels checked in a while.”

Gideon’s tone is almost concerned. “Captain. You know levels of your medication should be checked three-monthly, along with renal and thyroid function.”

Sara sighs. “And  _you_  clearly also know that, Gideon. So why haven’t you reminded me?”

Gideon is silent for a moment. Sara briefly wonders what  _thinking_  is like for her.

“Captain Lance. You know that I know a great deal about the crew, yes?”

“...Yes?” Sara isn’t sure where this is going. “You can see our dreams if you want to. You’ve got files on all of us. That kind of thing?”

“That is what I was referring to, yes. However, I would never want a member of the crew to think that I didn’t respect their privacy.” She says that last word with the clipped English vowel. “Especially over medical matters.”

Sara frowns. “Gideon, are you saying you didn’t remind me about my tests because I’ve never -” she pauses, swallows and tries again. “Because I’ve never talked to you about being bipolar?”

“That is correct, Captain.”

Sara smiles, wondering whether it’s Rip’s influence that has left Gideon so surprisingly… human. The AI may have some strange, computer-like lapses in judgement at times, but she can be very considerate, too. Sara strokes the med bay seat absently.

“So, Ms Lance?” Gideon breaks in.

Sara sighs and sits down. “Lay ‘em on me, Gideon. All the lithium tests.” She winces as the medical cuff closes around her wrist. 

“Just three short tests, Captain,” Gideon says reassuringly. “And I promise you won’t feel a thing.”

“Liar,” Sara sighs.

* * *

**3\. Ray**

“Dr Palmer?”

Ray looks up from his desk, where he’s mixing chemicals. Upon seeing no one else in his lab, he clocks who the voice belongs to. “Hi, Gideon!”

“I would like to remind you that it’s past time for your medication.”

Ray slaps himself upside the head. “Oh darn it, of course it is. Thanks for the reminder!” He grins as he reaches for the pill box in his bag. “Hey, you know what the problem was, Gideon?”

“What, Dr Palmer?”

“I forgot to sing the medication song!” He knocks a pill back with a swig from the coffee mug on his desk. (The coffee’s cold, and he grimaces.)

There’s silence for a moment, before Gideon says, “Yes, I’m sure  _that’s_  the problem.”

He scowls. “Oh, come on, Gideon. You know the song helps the whole crew remember their meds. This is a vital service I’m offering everyone.”

On cue, Nate shoves his head around the door. “Are we singing the song? Oh, please say we’re singing the song.” He bounds into the room, puppy-like.

Ray raises his eyebrows at him. “Had  _your_  meds, bro?”

Nate waves a hand. “Yeah, on time and everything. But I hear you need the song, buddy! Citizen Steel is flying in to help.” He sprawls himself over a chair.

“Still not Superman, Nate,” Ray says, and Nate pouts. “Gideon, you’ll sing the song with us, right?”

“I do not  _sing_ , Dr Palmer,” she says tightly.

Ray delivers a plaintive look towards the ceiling. “Oh come on, Gideon. Just one verse? For me?”

Nate provides effective, necessary assistance. “Come on, Gideon,” he whines. “You know you want to.”

If Gideon could sigh, Ray thinks she would be doing it. Instead, she says, “All right, Dr Palmer, Dr Heywood - if you insist. You will have to start, though.”

Ray smiles and raises a hand, conductor to his invisible orchestra. “My verse!” he calls out to begin, and takes up the song to the tune of  _Row Row Row Your Boat_. “7am is Benadryl, 10pm is Tofranil. Happy and healthy and focused and calm, taking all our pills.” He nods towards Nate. “Nate’s verse!”

Nate bounces on his chair and joins in. “7am is Adderall, then it’s time for T, night time’s DDAVP, and don’t forget the coffee!”

Gideon cuts in helpfully. “Dr Heywood, I believe your haemophilia medication needs to be taken at 11pm each night, so you might consider adding the specific time into your verse. Otherwise that sounds like a very… useful song.”

Nate shrugs. “We can’t make the time scan with the rest.”

“We’re cutting the scansion a bit fine with the coffee line anyway,” Ray says thoughtfully.

Nate flicks the pens on the desk in front of him, sending them flying in all directions. “We wrote Sara a verse, but it basically just says ‘take your fucking lithium at 7’ and she said she was good but that she really appreciates having us on the crew,” he says.

“And Jax yelled ‘I TAKE ONE PILL AND HAVE A REMINDER ON MY PHONE, NOW LEAVE ME ALONE’ when I tried to ask if he wanted a verse,” Ray adds, doing what he thinks is a passable Jax impression.

Nate spins his chair. “Again! And this time you’re singing too, Gideon.”

Ray snorts, then lifts his conductor arm again.

Gideon joins in, obviously unimpressed throughout.

* * *

**4\. Zari**

She turns over in the dark and looks at the ship’s clock display, flashing 3am. She sighs and shoves the pillow over her head.

After a moment, she puts the pillow back under her head and turns to the wall.

A few minutes later, she turns back over, hurls the pillow onto the floor and groans.

“Gideon,” she says, in a flat tone. She doesn’t follow the name with a command. (A coding joke starts to form in her head, but she abandons it. She’s too tired to snark.)

“Yes, Ms Tomaz?”

She sighs. “Nothing. Never mind.”

She lapses back into a muggy silence, lying awake in the dark for maybe ten minutes longer. Until the quiet is interrupted by a nosy computer.

“Ms Tomaz,” Gideon says softly, presumably trying not to startle her. “We have talked about how it’s not uncommon for people to need medical support after a trauma, have we not?”

Zari winces. “Yes, Gideon, and I’ve told you I don’t want antidepressants right now. We’ll talk about it again in a few weeks.”

“Of course, Ms Tomaz - but perhaps tonight you might be willing to consider the sleep aid I’ve suggested. Just for one night, perhaps. As I said, there are few if any side effects.”

She shakes her head firmly in the dark. “Not taking anything I could get addicted to.”

“The sedative I could offer would be non-habit forming if not taken on more than an occasional basis. And I can’t imagine you accepting it again soon,” Gideon adds wryly.

Zari’s quiet for a while. “Would I have to go to the med bay?” she says after a minute.

“Only for me to deliver the medication to you. Then you can come straight back to your own room. No sleeping in chairs, I promise.” Gideon’s tone shifts from formal to personal again, hinting at more kindness than Zari can handle from an AI at 3 in the morning. “Ms Tomaz, you can’t continue to function at this level of sleeplessness.”

She sits up and rubs her eyes. “Yeah, you’re not wrong there, Gideon,” she agrees. She drags herself up into a standing position. “All right. We’re going. Don’t let me get lost going back to bed, Gideon. I don’t wanna end up in Mick’s room or anything, ‘kay?”

“Although that’s highly unlikely, I will make it my personal mission to ensure that you do not end up in any inappropriate situations.”

Zari rolls her eyes as she pulls on her robe and slippers. “Thanks. I think.”

“Don’t worry, Ms Tomaz,” Gideon assures her. “I’ll take good care of you.”

“You’d better, you meddling machine.”

* * *

**5\. Nate**

He’s brushing his teeth in his room over a bowl of water — he really hates lining up for the bathroom — when Gideon breaks into his morning routine.

“Hello, Dr Heywood.”

“Oh hey, Gideon,” he says through a mouthful of toothpaste, and spits. “What can I do for you this fine morning?”

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t taken your medication yet. You usually take it before breakfast. I didn’t want you to forget.”

Nate laughs, pulling on a sweatshirt with WAVERIDER LEGENDS emblazened across it. (He’d got jealous of the STAR Labs team and their sweatshirts, on the latest team-up, and had Gideon make these. He and Ray are the only crew members still faithfully wearing them, now that the novelty’s worn off.) “I’m good, Gideon. You don’t have to remind me. But thanks.” He moves over to his storage cupboards. “Took me a long time to get through the gender clinics,” he says thoughtfully. “I never forget my T now.” He grabs two breakfast bars and a bottle of water from a drawer, and goes back to his desk to take his meds. “And… well, I don’t love the DDAVP quite so much. Or the injections, when I have episodes,” he says, as he removes a testosterone patch from the packet. “But I _do_ enjoy not bleeding to death on the regular. So.”

“Then I am glad that you’re looking after yourself, Dr Heywood,” Gideon replies. “But if you ever find yourself forgetting, I’m always happy to remind you.”

He laughs, wrestling with a bottle of pills that doesn’t want to open. “Interfering, Gideon?” He wrenches the bottle open after a minute, just as he’s thinking of steeling up and slamming the lid against something.

“You will get no interference from me, Dr Heywood,” she says, as Nate finishes up and swings out of the room towards the galley. “I’m just very keen to make sure my crewmates are as healthy as they need to be, can be, and want to be.”

“And we appreciate it, Gideon.” He smiles, and carefully doesn’t mention that he’s noticed how she referred to them.

“And don’t forget your morning coffee, Dr Heywood,” she adds, as he enters the kitchen.

“As if I would.”

* * *

**+1. Mick**

Ray is barging into Mick’s room before Gideon has finished saying “meltdown.”

Mick looks exhausted, curled up in the corner of his room.

Ray crouches down next to him. “Hey,” he says quietly. Getting no response, he tries again. “Mick, can you look at me? It’s okay if you can’t.”

Mick looks up with unusually quiet compliance. He doesn’t complain about Ray entering the room uninvited.

Ray smiles. “Hey, buddy. Gideon told me you got stressed out.”

“Yeah.” He shrugs, his arms wrapped around himself. For Mick, he looks oddly small there in the corner.

“Do you want anything?” Ray asks. “Water? Tea? I -” He scratches the back of his head. “I don’t know, do you have a weighted blanket or anything?”

“No.” He’s staring straight ahead into empty space.

“Mr Rory,” Gideon’s voice comes, insistent.

Mick starts to reply to her, then gives up, waving his hand helplessly. “Gideon. Tell him.”

She responds immediately. “Mr Rory,” she repeats. “Do I have your consent to share your basic medical information and the relevant portions of our conversations on the subject, with Dr Palmer?”

Mick grits his teeth and manages to say, “Yeah. He knows a lot of it.”

“Dr Palmer, I have been encouraging Mr Rory to consider medication. Including antidepressant medication to help with the symptoms of his autistic spectrum condition.” On cue, Mick growls and Ray winces, and Gideon rephrases. “The  _features_  of his autism. I have told him that, according to research current to the 22nd century, the same medication is very likely to help with his pyromania.”

He growls louder at that.

“Clearly, however, that is a conversation for another day,” Gideon adds. “Right now I am simply trying to establish whether Mr Rory would like a mild sedative. Just to help calm his current anxiety.”

Ray nods at the ceiling. He moves around to sit next to Mick against the wall, looking away from him. “You know,” Ray says, pulling out a fidget toy from his pocket. He deftly tangles and untangles it with one hand. “I’m on antidepressants.” Mick doesn’t say anything, but he raises his eyebrows. Ray continues, emboldened by the half-response. “A kind that no one’s ever heard of.” He laughs. “You wouldn’t believe how many meds I went through before I found one that I wasn’t allergic to. I mean -”

Mick interrupts with another growl.

Ray nods at him apologetically. “Right, not the time for a story, sorry. Anyway,” he continues, “it’s not so bad. I don’t get so many shutdowns anymore. And I’m not so anxious all the time.”

Mick takes a deep breath, still staring into space. “I’m not crazy.”

Ray winces, then raises his eyebrows. “Crazy’s a relative term, and also we try not to say it anymore, Mick.” Mick huffs at him. “But I’m not saying -” He sighs and cuts off. If Gideon had a physical form right now, he’d be looking to her for help.

Mick drops his head onto his arms, hiding his face. “I like my fire thing,” he says, muffled.

“I know,” Ray says quickly, “and no one’s trying to change you.” He turns to look at him. “This is your decision, Mick. If you like yourself better without meds, then you do. But - hey, right now? Do you think you’d feel better taking something to calm you down?”

Ray waits for Mick to consider this.

Eventually he lifts his head off his arms and looks at Ray. “No,” he says decisively. “No meds.”

Ray nods. “Okay then.”

Mick grunts as he stands up. “Gideon - talk about this another time?”

“Certainly, Mr Rory. The medbay doors are always open to you. Or just ask to talk when you’re in your room, if you would like to be more certain of privacy.”

“Good.” He glances at Ray. “Training room. Wanna hit something bigger than that,” he says, nodding at the punching bag hanging from his ceiling.

Ray shrugs from where he’s still crouched on the floor. “Doesn’t sound like the worst thing you could be doing. Want some company? Not to hit  _me_ , though,” he adds in a rush, standing up. “That does not sound fun so please don’t do that.”

Mick nods once. “No hitting you. Got it.” He grabs a kit bag from his bench. “Come on, Haircut.”

Ray risks patting him on the back as they leave the room. He wishes he could say something comforting or supportive, but he can’t think of anything that Mick wouldn’t either laugh at or shrug off.

He falls out of step with Mick, letting him move ahead down the corridor for a minute. “Thanks for letting me know, Gideon,” he says quietly. “Not sure how much I helped, but…”

“Probably more than I did, Dr Palmer,” she says in an almost-whisper.

Ray hums doubtfully, but nods.

They work out side by side for half an hour or so. By the end, Mick is talking in full sentences again. Well, as close to full sentences as he ever gets.

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of medical references, including refs to mental health conditions, autism, ADHD, other neurodivergent conditions, physical health conditions, and treatment. References to an autistic meltdown (not shown). 
> 
> Anything medical in Legends fic has to involve a lot of handwaving and some on-and-off pretending that the med bay doesn't exist. Here, this was particularly true of Nate's stuff. Sorry if I made a mess of it!
> 
> [This is a Tangle](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/776096948255756088/), which Ray is playing with when he’s talking to Mick - a stimming toy aimed at autistic people.
> 
> Medication references:  
> Sara - Lithium is a medication often taken for bipolar disorder. People taking it need regular blood tests.  
> Nate - DDAVP is a medication for haemophilia. His reference to ‘T’ is to testosterone (taken by trans men who transition). Adderall is a medication for ADHD.  
> Ray - Tofranil is a (not very commonly taken) antidepressant.
> 
> Comments very welcome. I always reply!
> 
> On tumblr [here](https://sophiainspace.tumblr.com/).


End file.
